Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant offline for planned maintenance work

STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis file photo taken in March shows an aerial view of the Oyster Creek Generating Station, a nuclear power plant in Forked River, on the Atlantic Ocean near the New Jersey shore. Oyster Creek is a single unit boiling water reactor that began operation in 1969, it was the first large scale commercial nuclear power plant in the US. and is scheduled to be retired at the end of 2019.

LACEY — The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is offline for planned maintenance to prepare it for peak summer power demands.

Operators took the plant offline at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Work will include repairs to one of five recirculation pumps that are used to move water through the reactor during power operations. Crews will also do preventive maintenance that will ready the plant for the summer season.

Some minor repairs will also be carried out that can only be done when the plant is offline.

The nation's oldest nuclear power plant, Oyster Creek will close in 2019.